Is This A PhotoGRAPH of Tammy?

By Joelle Steele

Since the 1970s, I’ve been analyzing and comparing faces in photographs to authenticate identities. A few years ago, I was asked by an attorney client of mine to help with a possible case of mistaken identity. I cannot tell you how many cases like this have come across my desk in recent years. People persist in relying on software that does not work in comparing two faces to see if they are the same. This is sometimes due to a flaw in the programming of the software itself, and other times is a flaw in the choice of which software to use. I have found that neither work very well, because they are simply completely overlooking the correct way to compare faces. I did not invent the correct way to do it. It was taught to me by several different well-known experts many, many years ago (I am almost 70 years old). And that way works perfectly every single time. So here’s the story, names all changed on request of the attorney involved and his client.

Tammy was a 32 year-old, light-skinned African American woman arrested at her place of work for stealing a car. The stolen car was not in her possession. When the car was stolen she was at work, about two miles from where the car was stolen. The stolen car was a manual transmission and Tammy couldn’t drive stick. Her face had been positively identified by a witness to the crime. It was positively identified as a match to a photo taken by a surveillance camera. It was positively identified as one of 20 photos generated from a database. Tammy spent three days in jail before anyone took the time to examine the photos related to this case. They just assumed that the computer-generated match was correct. They couldn’t even tell the difference by looking at the photos. That was where I came in.

Tammy’s attorney sent me her photo, the photo from the database, and the photo from the surveillance camera. I knew at first sight that her photo was not a match for either of the photos. The facial proportions were very close, but they just didn’t resemble each other enough, in my opinion, to be the same person. But, I still aligned the pupils and made the irises the same size  before I compared the three faces. Sure enough, not the same person. As it turned out, neither of those photos was a match for the real criminal either. That eventually turned out to be Marta, a 48 year-old Hispanic prostitute who was arrested while driving another stolen car.

Visually comparing two faces and discovering they have the same facial proportions and resemble each other slightly is no guarantee of a match. The only way to know for sure is to first align the pupils of the eyes on an even horizon. Then make the irises of each face the exact same size. This is very easy to do in any photo editing software, such as Photoshop. The irises of a person’s eyes do not change in size, and sometimes one is even slightly bigger than the other, so they are the most accurate way to compare faces. Once the pupils are aligned and the irises sized, you can compare the faces side by side to see if everything else matches up.

It is not uncommon to get to this point and find that one person’s head is bigger than the other because their eyes are smaller in proportion to their face than those of the other face, and vice versa. This is absolutely the fastest way to rule out a match, and ruling out a match is as important as finding a match. Just ask Tammy.